Authorised Vendor Thanos AMC-AASD15A 6axis Servo Motion Controller

Tronicgr_6DOF · Mar 2, 2020

Some great truly DIY platforms are coming along... can't wait to see them in action...

Tronicgr_6DOF · Mar 3, 2020

Light or dark iRacing paint?

Which one would you like better? Choices...

iRacing Authentication

members.iracing.com

Dennis Karlsson · Mar 3, 2020

Light! Or... maybe dark. I don't know. =)

Tronicgr_6DOF · Mar 3, 2020

The latest beta 2.09 with spike filter was successfully tested today on Mike's heavy 737 6DOF motion platform from New Mexico.

The spike filter allowed all smaller detailed movements to pass, and it filtered the touchdown jolt, reducing it to smaller vibrations... touchdown is on minute 2:50 on the video.

Thanks
Thanos

Tronicgr_6DOF · Mar 3, 2020

K.Parkin · Mar 3, 2020

Looking for some help please.
I have a AMC-AASD15A controller and AASD15A servo drivers which I am using for traction loss.
Controller setup as instuctions but as soon as the system sees data the actuator moves to about 25%.
I have 100% in one direction but only 25% in the other, when testing in simtools.
The movement is all normal from the controller buttons without data coming in.
Any ideas?

Tronicgr_6DOF · Mar 3, 2020

K.Parkin said:
Looking for some help please.
I have a AMC-AASD15A controller and AASD15A servo drivers which I am using for traction loss.
Controller setup as instuctions but as soon as the system sees data the actuator moves to about 25%.
I have 100% in one direction but only 25% in the other, when testing in simtools.
The movement is all normal from the controller buttons without data coming in.
Any ideas?

Can you post some screenshots of your simtools settings? It must be a setting there that restricts the movement to one side. Actually sounds like a boundary setting issue.

Also did you set the Disable Park parameter as 4DOF + TL + Surge? This will keep the TL actuator centered after power on.

Tronicgr_6DOF · Mar 3, 2020

K.Parkin said:
Looking for some help please.
I have a AMC-AASD15A controller and AASD15A servo drivers which I am using for traction loss.
Controller setup as instuctions but as soon as the system sees data the actuator moves to about 25%.
I have 100% in one direction but only 25% in the other, when testing in simtools.
The movement is all normal from the controller buttons without data coming in.
Any ideas?

Also you can join the Discord to chat directly with me or other members (no we don't charge fees for the access lol ):

Join the Thanos_Tronicgr Discord Server!

Check out the Thanos_Tronicgr community on Discord - hang out with 3066 other members and enjoy free voice and text chat.

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Thanks
Thanos

Tronicgr_6DOF · Mar 3, 2020

New updated manual is now available that adds a few things about the Smoothing and Spike filter features that will be included in firmware v2.09.

AMC-AASD15A-Firmware/AMC-AASD15A_4DOF+TL-Simtools_manual_v2_3.pdf at master · tronicgr/AMC-AASD15A-Firmware

Firmware and design files for AMC-AASD15A servo controller for AASD-15A and compatible drives - AMC-AASD15A-Firmware/AMC-AASD15A_4DOF+TL-Simtools_manual_v2_3.pdf at master · tronicgr/AMC-AASD15A-Fi...

github.com

Thanks
Thanos

Tronicgr_6DOF · Mar 4, 2020

camerusa · Mar 4, 2020

@Tronicgr_6DOF at what speed should the controller be in W10 Device manager? It’s currently at 9,600 bauds.

Tronicgr_6DOF · Mar 4, 2020

camerusa said:
@Tronicgr_6DOF at what speed should the controller be in W10 Device manager? It’s currently at 9,600 bauds.

The Com port baud setting doesn't matter. The actual baud speed is set by the controller to 250kbps automatically.

Thanks
Thanos

Tronicgr_6DOF · Mar 5, 2020

Its about time to release the latest firmware update for the AMC-AASD15A servo controller. This firmware brings alot of new features and improvements that were done during the last month and countless beta versions.

You can find this firmware on the usual github space:

AMC-AASD15A-Firmware/Latest_firmware at master · tronicgr/AMC-AASD15A-Firmware

Firmware and design files for AMC-AASD15A servo controller for AASD-15A and compatible drives - tronicgr/AMC-AASD15A-Firmware

github.com

======= enc_6dof_AMC_AASD15A_v2_09 =======
release date: 03/5/2020:

Added "Rotation Offset" parameter that allows custom degrees backtrack of the rotating actuators during calibration so they can clear away from the limit switch it the hardstop. This can be set to any value between 1-90 degrees angle. It no effect on the linear actuators backtrack of the motor that is set by default to a little less than half rotation of the motor.
Added Rolling Average Filter that is set to run globally and it appear in the LCD menu with the name "Filter Factor". The Filter Factor value is located under the "Pulse Freq" menu option. The motors must be parked or powered off as there is safety that does not allow modification of the filter factor value otherwise. It will not allow modification when you operate the buttons on the panel, or being on online mode. You can disable the filter entirely by selecting value "0" for the Filter Factor parameter. There are 5 levels of filtering:
0 No Filter
1 Hard Filter
2 Semi-Hard Filter
3 Semi-Soft Filter
4 Soft-Filter
5 ...Molasses
The jump when entering online mode was fixed. Also fixed the jump if you activated e-stop in power off mode... it will always make sure the actuators are in park before starting motion, either offline or online.
The new firmware will allow you to turn off the LCD updates for motor position information (bars) while still allowing navigating the menu by switching ON the DIP#3.
I added a "Hold position" option for the Force Offline switch, which will keep the actuators on standby position (50%) while the Force offline switch is activated. Otherwise if you want to manually switch between Park and Standby positions while the Force Offline switch is active, you can select the option "Park Motors".
It has now has a fix for when using Traction Loss axis, it will calibrate the motor in park position and then will slowly move to 50% position. While changing the Filter Factor value it will also move the TL actuator to Park position and move it back after the setting.
Added an option to optionally change the signal level of the S-ON output pin (Enable), as some servos require High level signal to be enabled (5v).
Added spike filter that can be adjusted by three parameters: Level, Range and ON-OFF
1. Level: it defines the distance in data points that the input position have to exceed for the spike filter to kick in. This is absolute 16bit value 0-65535, default value 32767. If the spike filter kicks in too often, increase this value.
2. Range: parameter for the Spike Filter to better fine tune the stepping of the spike filter value for lower level values.
3. Enable or Disable the Spike Filter
Improved the delay caused by the Rolling Average Filter and now the motion from park to standby and to online data should be considerably faster. Also added two stage positioning algorithm to move faster for large distances and slow down when near target for these artificial movements.
Fixes the transition to online motion data if the Force-Offline switch is used, avoiding jumps or jolts in the motion.
Fixed the position seek during spike filtering to to a range instead a point to allow catching up to real time motion data immediately after a crash.

The Rolling Average Filter will improve the vibration levels of the servomotor, by making sure it will always receive continuous pulses without jumps because of potential gaps, or non linear motion cues from the motion software, and its adding a bit of s-curve acceleration/deceleration to allow fast and accurate positioning without banging start-stop motion of the motor, that translate to hammer noises in the linear actuator. It smooths out the pulses so good that its even possible to control a closed loop stepper without sounding like a jackhammer in operation!!

The new Spike Filter works by detecting spikes in position data larger that the defined level (most likely crashes) and it will automatically activates the Force Offline mode, that places the actuators in seek position mode until all motors catch up with live motion data. So for the duration of the crash the motors will avoid doing any intense jolts and most likely the motion will come back on when the vehicle is standing still. It should work wonders in long duration crashes like when you have rollover down a bank for example...

Some related videos:

Calibration offset for rotary actuators
Spike filter demo on AMC-AASD15A
A quick race with Spike filter Enabled on AMC-AASD15A
A quick race with Spike filter Disabled on AMC-AASD15A
Tutorial: Adjusting the Spike Filter Level and Range

Thanks
Thanos

diablo2112 · Mar 5, 2020

Excellent work. Thanks so much for all your continued development, its much appreciated.

Hocky · Mar 5, 2020

The spike filter is a game changer!
Now you can tune for max performance and not for limiting crashes

Tronicgr_6DOF · Mar 7, 2020

Now watch how good the spike filter works handling crashes, while allowing the highest details and vibration while racing:

For 4DOF PT-ACTUATOR platform (spike level 1800):

And a longer version from CV (PT Motion Owners Club group):

For DIY 6DOF platform, 450mm stroke actuators and various spike levels for comparison:

It sure is a game changer!!! Off to adapt the spike filter on more of my controllers...

camerusa · Mar 7, 2020

@Tronicgr_6DOF I just received my motors from china. After some scary moments I got them all to work in 110v with the tip you gave. Now they all connected to your Controler. I watched this video

and I don’t go to calibration when I do hot plug. The motors stay in park. If I use the controller to move them they all go into their own direction and come back to park but they are not aligned. Is this an expected behavior ? I use simfeedback and even after selecting the right com port the motors do not budge and stay in park. Could you please help?
Thank w

Tronicgr_6DOF · Mar 7, 2020

camerusa said:
@Tronicgr_6DOF I just received my motors from china. After some scary moments I got them all to work in 110v with the tip you gave. Now they all connected to your Controler. I watched this video

and I don’t go to calibration when I do hot plug. The motors stay in park. If I use the controller to move them they all go into their own direction and come back to park but they are not aligned. Is this an expected behavior ? I use simfeedback and even after selecting the right com port the motors do not budge and stay in park. Could you please help?
Thank w

You need to use Simtools or the free FlyPT mover motion software:

FlyPT Mover

[ATTACH] ALERT! This is WIP. So expect problems! Info on the next posts is not updated. It's still valid, but some new features are missing. ABOUT...

www.xsimulator.net

The latest version of FlyPT Mover has dedicated output for Thanos interface.

For Simtools see instructions in the manual:

AMC-AASD15A-Firmware/AMC-AASD15A_4DOF+TL-Simtools_manual_v2_3.pdf at master · tronicgr/AMC-AASD15A-Firmware

Firmware and design files for AMC-AASD15A servo controller for AASD-15A and compatible drives - AMC-AASD15A-Firmware/AMC-AASD15A_4DOF+TL-Simtools_manual_v2_3.pdf at master · tronicgr/AMC-AASD15A-Fi...

github.com

Also make sure to enter all parameters in the servo drive, even the extra ones.

Thanks
Thanos

camerusa · Mar 7, 2020

Tronicgr_6DOF said:
You need to use Simtools or the free FlyPT mover motion software:

FlyPT Mover

[ATTACH] ALERT! This is WIP. So expect problems! Info on the next posts is not updated. It's still valid, but some new features are missing. ABOUT...

www.xsimulator.net

The latest version of FlyPT Mover has dedicated output for Thanos interface.

For Simtools see instructions in the manual:

AMC-AASD15A-Firmware/AMC-AASD15A_4DOF+TL-Simtools_manual_v2_3.pdf at master · tronicgr/AMC-AASD15A-Firmware

Firmware and design files for AMC-AASD15A servo controller for AASD-15A and compatible drives - AMC-AASD15A-Firmware/AMC-AASD15A_4DOF+TL-Simtools_manual_v2_3.pdf at master · tronicgr/AMC-AASD15A-Fi...

github.com

Also make sure to enter all parameters in the servo drive, even the extra ones.

View attachment 354028

Thanks
Thanos

Man, you’re always on! Awesome I will give it a try when everyone is awake here.

Michael Roitman · Mar 7, 2020

camerusa said:
Man, you’re always on! Awesome I will give it a try when everyone is awake here.

simfeedback doesnt work with an AMC Controller. Its a closed source program only meant to work with the arduino they use in the sfx guide.
thanos’ controller works with any motion app. Most people use SimTools. It takes some time to get the hang of it, but it works

theres also a new program coming out from the people at Sim-Motion that seems really simple but its still being programmed and has some bugs. They give a free 15min demo app. you can restart it every 15minutes and its a bit pricey at 99 euro for the full version in my opinion, but it looks very promising